Lubricating compositions have heretofore been suggested and/or utilized for many diverse applications. While lubricating oils have heretofore been successfully utilized for at least some such diverse applications, it has been found that continuing and/or effective lubrication for many applications could not be adequately achieved, such as, for example, for lubrication of bearings and/or where adverse conditions were encountered.
While attempts have also been heretofore made to provide application of lubricating oils over extended periods by provision of various oil retainers and/or providing greases in place of oils, such attempts have not met with complete success, particularly in providing continuing and effective lubrication to more difficult areas, such as, for example, for lubricating machine elements such as rolling element bearings, sliding bearings of all types, wire ropes and power transmission devices such as screws, chain drives and gears.
More recently, microporous polymer structures have been suggested and utilized for receiving and retaining lubricating oils. Such structures are shown, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,342,491 and 4,344,278, with lubricating compositions for such structures being shown, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,541,011, 3,547,819, 3,729,415, 4,146,487 and 4,239,632.
While such microporous polymer lubricating structures have been found to be useful and have fulfilled a need for many applications, further improvements to such compositions are felt to be still warranted to fulfill needs that can be uniquely accomplished by forming such structures through use of thermosetting materials which provide heretofore unavailable advantages such as, for example, in-situ formation utilizing processing with chemicals without heat treatment or high pressures, using low cost formulation equipment and/or providing structures with better high temperature properties than have heretofore been possible.